Real-time dynamics of false vacuum decay

Understand

We investigate false vacuum decay of a relativistic scalar field initialized in the metastable minimum of an asymmetric double-well potential.

• The transition to the true ground state is a well-defined initial-value problem in real time, which can be formulated in nonequilibrium quantum field theory on a closed time path.
• We employ the non-perturbative framework of the two-particle irreducible (2PI) quantum effective action at next-to-leading order in a large-N expansion.
• We also compare to classical-statistical field theory simulations on a lattice in the high-temperature regime.